Experts

John B. Bellinger III

Adjunct Senior Fellow for International and National Security Law

Expertise

International law and international criminal justice; international humanitarian law and human rights law; international tribunals, including the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court; treaty law and treaties, including the U.N. Law of the Sea Convention; foreign sovereign immunity and official immunities; international and domestic law applicable to use of force and counterterrorism operations, including detention and prosecution policies; intelligence law and covert action; espionage statutes; U.S. national security organization and process; U.S. national security statutes; foreign investment in the United States, Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

Programs

Bio

John B. Bellinger III is adjunct senior fellow for international and national security law at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He is also a partner at Arnold & Porter LLP in Washington, DC, where he advises sovereign governments and companies on a variety of international law and U.S. national security law issues.

From 2005 to 2009, Mr. Bellinger was the legal adviser for the U.S. Department of State under Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He led the U.S. delegation in numerous treaty negotiations and presentations to international bodies and represented the United States before the International Court of Justice in Mexico v. United States (Medellin) and before the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal. Before his confirmation as legal adviser, he managed Secretary Rice's Senate confirmation and codirected her State Department transition team. Mr. Bellinger served from 2001 to 2005 as senior associate counsel to the president and legal adviser to the National Security Council (NSC) at the White House, where he was the principal lawyer for the national security adviser, the NSC, and the NSC staff. He previously served as counsel for national security matters in the Criminal Division of the Justice Department during the Clinton administration, as special counsel to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and as special assistant to Director of Central Intelligence William H. Webster.

Mr. Bellinger is one of four U.S. members of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague, which nominates judges to the International Court of Justice. He speaks and writes regularly on public international and national security law issues. His op-eds have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and International Herald Tribune. Mr. Bellinger received his AB from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 1982, his JD from Harvard Law School in 1986, and an MA in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia in 1991.

Featured Publications

Recognizing the limitations of current international systems based in The Hague, David A. Kaye provides a strategy for promoting national-level justice and accountability mechanisms to prosecute perpetrators of mass atrocity crimes.

All Publications

John Bellinger argues that President Obama’s categorical dismissal of Guantanamo as a “facility that should have never been opened” needlessly politicizes the issue, alienating the congressional Republicans whose support he will need to close it. President Obama should use his State of the Union address the most compelling reason for Guantanamo’s closure: that its existence has now become a recruiting tool for terrorists around the world.

The 2001 law that authorized the U.S. war against al-Qaeda and its affiliates is not an appropriate justification for the offensive against ISIS and other emerging terrorist groups, says CFR's John Bellinger.

Despite recent calls for exceptions to diplomatic immunity, John B. Bellinger argues in the New York Times Room for Debate for the U.S. commitment to and importance of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations to protect U.S. diplomats serving abroad.

What is the Obama administration's legal justification for targeted killings? CFR national security expert John Bellinger explores this question as well as others with significant implications for U.S. counterterrorism.

John B. Bellinger III testifies before the House Committee on the Judiciary on the legal and policy issues that stem from the use of lethal force by the U.S. government against American citizens abroad.

John B. Bellinger III says, "Over the last 230 years, the Senate has approved more than 1,500 treaties. In 2013, Mr. Obama must demonstrate leadership by putting greater effort in securing Senate approval of essential treaties that advance American interests, including the Law of the Sea Convention."

Jeffrey H. Smith and John B. Bellinger III say that because a nuclear-armed Iran is a real threat to the United States, the president does have reason to argue for his constitutional authority to use force against Iran, but legislative approval would give him stronger legal and political ground to do so.

In his testimony before the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, John Bellinger argues that the Law of the Sea Convention is beneficial to the United States military, especially during a time of armed conflict, because it provides clear treaty-based navigational rights for our Navy, Coast Guard, and aircraft.

John B. Bellinger III discusses the upcoming Supreme Court hearing of arguments in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, which will decide whether corporations may be sued in U.S. courts for violations of international law under the Alien Tort Statute.

Detainee policy that would mandate military custody for al-Qaeda suspects captured in the United States could have a detrimental impact on U.S. counterterrorism operations, say CFR legal experts Matthew C. Waxman and John B. Bellinger III.

The Synthesis of Law and Politics and the Evolution of International Justice

Speakers:

John B. Bellinger III, Adjunct Senior Fellow, International and National Security Law, Council on Foreign Relations; Partner, Arnold & Porter LLP; Former Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State, David J. Scheffer, Mayer Brown/Robert A. Helman Professor of Law, and Director, Center for International Human Rights, Northwestern University School of Law; Former U.S. Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues, U.S. Department of State; Author, All the Missing Souls: A Personal History of the War Crimes Tribunals

The United States and the Future of Global Governance: The Use of Force and Accountability in International Law - A U.S. Perspective

Speakers:

Matthew C. Waxman, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Law and Foreign Policy, Council on Foreign Relations, John B. Bellinger III, Adjunct Senior Fellow for International and National Security Law, Council on Foreign Relations, David J. Scheffer, Professor of Law, Northwestern University